Saturday, August 15, 2009

Davis is still a Diamondback, Kuroda is still proving he can be a reliable starter, and the Dodgers still are awful in August (5-8 record). Last night's loss, while disappointing, at least came against Dan Haren. The Dodgers won't have the "ace" excuse tonight; Davis' is 5-4 with a 3.46 ERA lifetime against them.

How much rope will Torre give his latest lineup configuration? With Manny starting to produce again, the top of the order needs to get on base. Yesterday, the one-through-three hitters went 0-for-10; Russell Martin, recently promoted to batting second, and James Loney had especially disappointing nights.

The Dodgers' shortage of pinch hitters was also exposed, with Torre burning up Juan Pierre in Kershaw's spot early on and Mark Loretta lining out to end the game. But as long as the starters fail to go deep into games, don't be surprised to see 13 pitchers on the roster for the rest of the regular season.

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comments:

I'm getting sick of waiting for some kind of waiver deal. We're halfway through August and so far there's only been rumblings. I get it if they're waiting for Smoltz to be released, but this is driving me crazy.

MLASF - I completely agree. Although they could always use more pitching, the big glaring weakness is the Dodgers lack of a bat off the bench. It's painful watching Mark Lorretta pinch hit, especially in clutch situations.

@Steve Sax Santana wouldn't bean Sandoval, they belong to the same team in Venezuela, technically they are teammates, however i don't think neither of them will play next winter (Santana hasn't played in years)

@Sax, @PC i saw those uniforms yesterday, i think the problem is there's too much kerning between the letters and somehow the size of the letters looks gigantic and therefore, disproportionate. Maybe it's consequence of the inadequate kerning.

The beauty of it is that I thought game time was 6:10, not 5:10, so now it's not that far off. Pity I didn't get around to getting dinner cooking in time, though. These are going to be some quick-ass fajitas.

Vin talking about our upcoming home stand puts it in stark perspective. Cards then Cubs coming up, guys. Tough stuff. Vin said Torre said the knuckleballer will get a start Monday night. Can you imagine him hanging one and Pujols just creaming it to Glendale? Yikes.

" PHOENIX -- Knuckleballer Charlie Haeger will start Monday night for the Dodgers against St. Louis and Chad Billingsley is slated to pitch on Tuesday night, manager Joe Torre announced Saturday.

Haeger will be making his first appearance with the Dodgers. Billingsley will be returning from a strained left hamstring that caused him to miss his scheduled start on Wednesday in San Francisco.

Torre said Haeger's selection comes with "an asterisk" and could change if he's needed to pitch long relief on Saturday night, because Jeff Weaver is still unavailable after starting for Billingsley on Wednesday. Torre said he expects Weaver back in the bullpen by Sunday."

If Charlie can pitch in albuqueque, which is a jitters park becuase of the altitude and the dry weather, he will welcome nice big pitcher friendly dodger stadium. When is the last time we had a knuckleballer on the team?

Christ. I had flipped the channel so I missed it live, but I've pretty much cursed every time I've seen the replay. It sure doesn't look like it glanced off his arm or anything; just a direct shot at his head. Damn it.

Yeah, he's got to have a concussion. And even if he's fine physically, there's always the emotional toll something like this takes. Some guys have a hard time getting back in the box after being hit, and I've heard of some pitchers struggling with it, too.

O-Dog's reputation as a teammate was confirmed there. He was out before anyone. Russ looked torn apart, as did Rusty Ryal.

This is the second game I have watched where a pitcher has been hit like that. The first was the game where Billy Wagner was hit. That was even scarier, because he was immediately knocked out and didn't move.

It looks like Hiro was responsive, so here's hoping he will be ok and back soon.